Residents battle over age-restricted housing on Ridgefield Road

By Pat Tomlinson

Published 2:32 pm, Thursday, May 11, 2017

WILTON — An outspoken contingent of nearly 120 Wilton residents expressed their concerns to the Planning and Zoning Commission at a meeting Monday night regarding the fate of a new regulation that would permit age-restricted developments on a state-designated scenic road in town.

The Brubeck Room of the Wilton Library was filled with an air of contention from the start, as residents packed into the room to discuss Ridgefield Road resident Vicki Mavis’ proposal to amend a recent regulation that permits age-restricted developments on their road, following a proposal by a local developer for one such project at 183 Ridgefield Road.

Throughout the meeting, commission Chairman Joe Fiteni often found himself at odds with the overeager crowd. Fiteni repeatedly was forced to call the meeting to order as the residents bemoaned and booed arguments against the amendment, and applauded those speaking in favor of the amendment.

Mavis’ proposal would remove Ridgefield Road from the list of roads included in the age restricted overlay district (AROD), which includes Danbury and Westport roads as well.

The proposal also recommends placing a moratorium on any age-restricted developments until the town can complete its next Plan of Conservation and Development, which town officials hope to accomplish over the next couple of years.

Attorney Christopher Russo spoke on behalf of Mavis, arguing that the overlay district would negatively impact not only Ridgefield Road residents, but all Wilton residents. In addition to the nearly 150 petitions that residents sent in to the commission, Russo contended that there is mounting evidence that an age-restricted residence would adversely affect the neighborhood.

“You will hear evidence from experts and local Wiltonians with no personal connection to Ridgefield Road, who are receiving no monetary compensation, but who understand the injustice and serious implications of including Ridgefield Road in the AROD regulation,” Russo said at the start of the meeting.

Tom Curtin, a resident who does not live on Ridgefield Road, made the case that high-density housing would stick out in the neighborhood like a sore thumb.

“Putting high density, whether its age restricted or et cetera, on Ridgefield Road is like putting disco music in a cowboy bar in Houston, Texas. It just doesn’t fit,” Curtin said.

On the other hand, Commissioner Scott Lawrence argued that Mavis’ proposal wrongly assumes that the creation of an age restricted overlay district on Ridgefield Road means that age-restricted developments would sprout up without oversight.

“I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding about what it [this regulation] does, what is has done and what it may do. I still think that you have are protections in the regulations, protections because it is a scenic road, you have protections because it is historic, you have protection because of traffic, you have protections because of environmental and drainage issues. All of that is true, but does it lead to a conclusion that no conceivable project could satisfy all of those issues?” Lawrence said.

Lawrence and other commissioners contended that since all age-restricted developments in overlay districts must apply for special permits, there were already enough barriers in place to prevent non-conforming or out-of-place developments from going up.

Patti Frisch, instead, argued that the commission should just nip the problem in the bud. Otherwise, the Ridgefield Road community would continue to be a thorn in the commission’s side every time a new proposal for the scenic road came forward.

“Don’t make us come here in troves for every application and make these same arguments again, if you had passed AROD and said it could happen anywhere in town, we wouldn’t all be here. But you didn’t,” Frisch said.

Since the commission was unable to reach a conclusion on the application during the nearly five-hour meeting on Monday, the hearing is to be continued on May 22 at the Clune Center at Wilton High School.